Yes, it’s much harder once you have kids, because you really cannot plan when your kid is gonna be ill or not sleep. Unfortunately my daughter’s sleep schedule is everything but calculable.
I started last June (so yes, before registering) form old Schweser books. I read through Equity, FRA and Derivs (this latter proved to be a bad idea since they changed the whole topic, and it immensely confused me).
After having studied 3 topics, I went back to review, before starting a 4th. And then I reviewed everything again and again before introducing a new topic. This takes a lot of time, but helped immensely with my retention. I feel that subjects I started with (Equity, FRA, CF) were my strongest, and if I made errors on these it was only due to some nervousness or silliness on the exam.
On the other hand the topics I studied last I could not internalize as much, so I had some white spots in them PM, FI, Derivs).
Mistakes I did:
I overstudied the last week (unfortunately I lost some valuable time during April and early May due to ilnesses), so I went into the exam sleep deprived and over excited. Don’t do this, because if I fail, it partially was because I got confused on Quants, which normally was one of my strongest, but I somehow could not recall certain straightforward rules or formulas on the spot.
Due to running out of my schedule I did not destine sufficient time on Alternatives, I just read it once. I realized too late that it is a very easy topic, you easily could get 100% on it, still I think I got 67% but could have been better.
On the exam I solved the vignettes in the order they were coming. Instead I should have solved them in the order of easiest to hardest (this is what I did for LI). This way you could have your easy points under your belt for sure, and have a longer time per vignette for the harder questions.
After passing December 2016 Level I, I started studying for June 2017 Level II in early February (Level I results were posted late January). Just like Level I, I used a spreadsheet to make a scghedule and track progress. Spent approximately 2 hours each day after work/during commute, and about 4-5 hours on Saturday and Sunday, sometimes I took a day’s weekend off. My preferred way of studying is as follows:
Read prep provider’s (Wiley in my case) summary notes and complete CFAI EoC questions per reading. EoC’s highlight what info I missed, which I look up in the official CFAI curriculum. Some people leave these questions to the final review phase, but I find way more value in them during the reading process to reinforce concepts and retention.
Repeat 1. for all readings, make sure to finish this process by May/November (1 month before the exam).
First week of the last month of review I just skimmed through the summary notes to remember definitions, formulas, overall concepts. Took about 7 days since it’s a lot of material and forgot some of the stuff I read in February/March.
Three weeks out, I did all topic tests on CFAI website. Topic tests are comprised of questions from previous mock exams. This year had more than 80 topics tests online, so that’s 480 questions of hard difficulty (topic tests tend to be harder than CFAI EoC and the actual exam). All topic tests took me 1,5 weeks since reviewing them takes as much time as completing them, but it’s a very good exercise.
Final 1,5 weeks I did 2 CFAI full mocks and rehearsed formulas. My mock scores confirmed I was well prepared, so I relaxed most of the final week leading up to the exam on Saturday. On Thursday I did a final read of Ethics, and Friday I checked into my hotel.
My Level I study process was quite similar, the only difference is that I stuck with CFAI topic tests and mock exams this time, instead of prep provider’s exam material. For Level I I used Schweser and found the mock exams to be too easy. When I did the CFAI mock I scored about 10% less which worried me. The best learning material is CFAI, but just because of the immense amount of reading material I use supplemental summary notes, but for everything else CFAI.
I have a job related to inspections and therefore remain away from home mostly. I started in April and studied 1-1.5 hrs a day on weekdays and around 6 hrs on weekends. I used mostly Schweser and referred core reading when more clarity was needed or wanted to check how well i have read (by solving EOC questions/ Boxes). I could barely finish 1st reading by 10th May (left Ethics). Thereafter I started 2nd reading. It took me around 10 days to revise everything. At this point I took leave and studied for 12 hours a day till the end. Finished Schweser 2 more times, did Ethics from core reading. As far as question practice was concerned, I did Schweser mock tests but mostly took 2-3 sections only at a time (i.e. after thorough study/ revision of all chapters of 2-3 sections) so that I could know that at best how much prepared I am. Finally I attempted one complete CFA institute mock. Total hours approx 230-250 hrs.
I am satisfied with my attempt given the conditions in which i studied and hopeful to clear level-II.
Retrospectively, I should have started atleast a month ago so that i could get a week more at the end which I could have utilised for mocks as 1 hour of last week of May is like 4-5 hours of March/ April.
I thought that two hours a night after work and then 5 hours on Saturdays starting in Jan was more than enough. Sundays were optional depending on how far ahead or behind I was compared to where I had planned to be. Started second week of Jan, 15 hours a week would have put me at roughly 315 hours, but I took the week before the exam off and was doing 7 hours or so per day that week so all in I probably put in 335. Felt prepared but I was also a re-taker so I had a base to work off of. I think had I not been a re-taker I would have started in November so I could maintain the same amount of weekly prep time wise. Taking Sundays off was huge for me actually, you gotta keep living life while you prep. Some people prefer to cram though, so to each their own. The above is what worked for me, working around 55 hours per week.